This invention relates to a new and useful improvement in a fisherman's appliance and more particularly to a submersible lamp assembly for attracting fish to a baited hook or artificial lure.
Submersible fishing lamp assemblies, generally speaking, have been known in the prior art. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,079,721 issued to N. J. Smith on Mar. 5, 1963, U.S. Pat. No. 3,177,604 issued to A. L. Ewing on Apr. 13, 1965 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,267,277 issued to M. R. McLamb on Aug. 16, 1966. The patent to Smith discloses a water tight electric lamp removably secured immediately above a transparent canister so that high intensity light is projected downwardly through the canister to illuminate live bait swimming in confinement therein. As a consequence, the Smith assembly projects light downwardly into the water surrounding the canister in a widely dispersed inverted cone shaped pattern.
The reference patent to Ewing discloses an electric lamp disposed within a transparent jar also containing live bait swimming in confinement therein. Light dispersion into the surrounding water will be highly omnidirectional except perhaps for a cone of relatively darker water extending upward and outward from its vertex immediately on top of the jar lid.
Lastly, the patent to McLamb discloses a gas lantern confined within a watertight transparent bowl. The reference assembly may be lowered into the water to a depth which will permit feeding of gas to the submerged lamp through a gas line from above the water surface and which will permit the assembly to be vented to the air above the water through an extended vent tube. The depth to which the McLamb assembly may be lowered is therefore severely limited by the length of the gas feed and exhaust vent lines.
A difficulty that has been encountered with such prior art lamps results from the wide disbursion of light into the water surrounding the lamp particularly at levels well above and below the level of the light source. I have found that better results can be obtained by suspending a fishing hook, either containing live bait or an artificial lure, in an area of relative darkness below the level of the light source and outside of the region of direct illumination. It is extremely difficult to position the fishing hook at such a location using these prior art devices since the dispersion of light from the light source is so general and relatively omnidirectional. Further, in order to fish far enough from such a prior art light source such that the fish hook can be considered to be in relative darkness below the level thereof, the hook must be located so far away as to be for all practical purposes unassociated with the lamp. Fish attracted toward the ill-defined perimeter of such a generalized light source usually are too far from the hook to be attracted to the bait or lure thereof.
My invention substantially overcomes this and other prior art difficulties.